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Anime girl skirt-peeking leg-spreading noren is a new frontier in otaku merch【Video】

Casey Baseel Sep 16, 2021
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Mobile game celebrates fourth anniversary with a very unique creation.

In the highly competitive mobile game sector, where underperforming titles are quickly pruned from existence if they’re not generating enough income or hype, four years is a long time. That’s exactly the milestone Azur Lane is hitting in Japan this month, though, as the Chinese-developed game marks four years since its Japanese service launch.

Not to knock Azur Lane’s shooter/strategy gameplay loop, but there’s no denying that it owes a lot of its continued success to the visual design of its characters, who are historical warships anthropomorphized as anime-style girls, often with dynamic proportions and a penchant for revealing outfits. This is, after all, the game for which shipments of the officially licensed booby mouse pad had to be delayed, because the manufacturer couldn’t get its hands on enough silicone to keep up with demand.

So it comes as no surprise that the special merchandise to celebrate Azur Lane’s fourth anniversary includes yet another eyebrow-raising item. However, this time it’s not a mouse pad, huggy pillow, or figure, but a piece of cloth.

That might look like a regular old anime wall scroll, but it’s actually a noren. Noren are tapestry-like cloths traditionally found in doorways of Japanese restaurants and shops, and the fabric is split in the middle so that people can move the lower halves apart as they pass through.

▼ A normal, non-Azur Lane noren

What this means is that when you pass through the Azur Lane noren, which features an illustration of the character Cheshire’s hips and thighs, her legs open. In addition, the Azur Lane noren has an extra flap of cloth for the hem of the skirt, so that it can also be used like this.

While trying out the prototype, video presenter Mafia Kajita gave his impression as “This is…how should I put it? It’s a verry happy feeling…I don’t really want to leave…this is ingenious.”

▼ Cheshire’s in-game appearance

#アズレン #アズールレーン
結婚しました。この笑顔のせいで昇天するところでした。 pic.twitter.com/L8juGTxyeH

— ＤＡＨＬＩＡ (@BSLxJ3qgZg7k7BQ) October 2, 2020

Merchandiser Yostar, who’s producing the Azur Lane noren, hasn’t yet mentioned anything about pricing or a pre-order date, saying such information will be coming in a few days.

Related: Yostar
Source: YouTube/アズールレーン via Hachima Kiko
Top image: YouTube/アズールレーン
Insert images: YouTube/アズールレーン, Wikipedia/松岡明芳
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